Rotary drafting apparatus

ABSTRACT

Proposed in this invention is a rotary drafting apparatus particularly featured by a improved mechanism in which the relative positional relation between the needles formed integrally on the control plate arranged in vertically opposed relation is normally maintained in a prescribed state only through the meshing of gears provided coaxially with the control plates each of which has integrally formed along the circumference thereof a plurality of radially extending needles.

ilnited States Patent 1191 Shine et al.

ROTARY DRAFTING APPARATUS Inventors: Masakazu Shino, No. 13, 3-chome,

Sanwa-cho, Yamatotakada; Shizuka Sako, No. 782, 3-chome, Kashiwai-cho, Kasugai, both of Japan Filed: May 13, 1971 Appl. No.: 143,044

Foreign Application Priority Data May 14, 1970 Japan 45/41106 us. c1 19/293, 19/258, 19/295,

1 19/23, l9/.26 1111.0 D0lh 5/24 Field of Search 19/236, 128,258,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Wilkie 19/293 X [45] July 31, 1973 2,678,472 5/1954 Ambler 19/283 2,761,179 9/1956 Lepoutre.... 19/258 3,256,570 6/1966 Kaino 19/295 3,481,006 12/1969 Bumham l9/.26 X 3,611,507 10/1971 Ootsuki et a1. 19/65 A Primary ExaminerDorsey Newton Attorney-Waters, Roditi, Schwartz & Nissen [57] ABSTRACT Proposed in this invention is a rotary drafting apparatus particularly featured by a improved mechanism in which the relative positional relation between the needles formed integrally on the control plate arranged in vertically opposed relation is normally maintained in a prescribed state only through the meshing of gears provided coaxially with the control plates each of which has integrally formed along the circumference thereof a plurality of radially extending needles.

2 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures PATENIEU J L 3 1 ma SHEET 2 0F 4 FIG.3B

FIG.3A

ROTARY DRAFTING APPARATUS The present invention relates generally to a rotary drafting apparatus in a spinning machine, and more particularly to a rotary gill used for the gilling of sliver mainly in a worsted spinning process.

Conventionally, the gill fallers have been popularly used for the doubling and drafting of the sliver in the gilling step. However, as these conventional gill fallers used to make complex movements along the guide section of the gill box, noisy sounds could not be avoidable and it was hardly possible to realize high-speed operation. Further, they involved a problem concerning exchange, repair or maintenance of the planted needles.

Some significant attempts have been proposed to overcome such defects. For instance, there has been developed a rotary gill in which needles are mounted around the circumferences of the rollers. Another attempt proposes a rotary gill in which a plurality of radially extending teeth are integrally formed on the circumferential periphery of each roller. However, the former device, where the needles are planted around the circumferential faces of the rollers or roller plates, is found unsatisfactory in durability and also requires much time and labour for exchange or maintenance of the needles. Further, it is difficult to maintain the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles always in a predetermined, that is, desired state, and hence the combing of the sliver may be disordered, resulting in non-uniform thickness of the sliver and uneveness in strength. On the other hand, the latter device, where the tooth-like elements are integrally formed on each roller, would fail to perform the primary function of the rollers to smoothly deliver the sliver by letting said tooth-like elements effectively thrust into sliver without unduly compressing it, due to insufficient sharpness of the pointed ends of the teeth or due to too small angle made by the upper and lower teeth, that is, the small internal angle formed by the upper and lower needles when they first contact the sliver on the feed side.

It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which allows always uniform combing of sliver by keeping constant the positional relation between the needles on the upper and lower control plates with a certain phase difference in the axial direction.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described, in which the relative positional relation between the needles is maintained normally in a prescribed condition merely through the meshing of gears carried on the end of each shaft on which the control plates having the integral needles thereon are mounted, thereby allowing uniform and high-speed combing of sliver with no need of complex operations, such as centering, which were indispensable in the conventional devices.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type described, which has the control plates adapted such that they are easily run through the sliver without compressing it, so as to allow smooth advancing movement of said sliver, by specifically arranging the upper and lower needles in such a manner that the internal angle formed by said upper and lower needles when they first contact with the sliver introduced will be substantially more than 60.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus of the type just described, which are provided with control plates having formed thereon the integral needles, whereby there is eliminated any need of exchange of needles, and hence no need of stopping the machine operation for such needle exchange which is otherwise necessitated, and perfect prevention of reduction of productivity resulting from such interruption of machine operation, and whereby any disorder of the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles resulting from distortion or strain of needles is perfectly eliminated to allow practice of the always uniform sliver combing operation.

It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a drafting apparatus of the type in which the top stand housing the control roller assembly therein is so designed as to be openable at one side thereof, so that should the sliver be fed in excess of a prescribed amount between the control rollers or should the material get coiled around or stuffed between the rollers, said top stand is opened at one side to allow easy access to the spot of trouble.

All of the foregoing objects of the present invention can be accomplished by providing a rotary drafting apparatus characterized by a novel mechanism in which the control rollers provided with control plates having a plurality-of end-pointed and oval-sectioned integral needles are provided in vertically opposed relation in the upper and lower stands, and gears are provided at the end of each shaft on which said rollers are mounted, whereby the relative positional relation between the needles is maintained normally in a predetermined state merely through the meshing of said gears.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred forms of arrangement of the control rollers, control plates and other associated elements employed in the rotary drafting apparatus according to the present invention, in which: 7

FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of the drafting apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial front view showing a pair of control rollers arranged in opposed relation, with the control plates being mounted on each of said rollers;

FIG. 3A is a front view of a control plate and FIG. 3B is a view illustrating the inner angle formed between the associated upper and lower needles;

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a condition in which the sliver is being drafted between the control plates provided on the opposed control rollers;

FIG. 5 is a view showing the transmission mechanism thereof;

FIGS. 6, 7, 8A and 9A are the illustrations showing the relative positional relations between a pair of control plates and gears and the relative positional relation between the needle points on the opposed control plates;

FIGS. 88 and 9B are expansion plans showing the arrangement of the needle points; and

FIG. 10 is a partially cut-away side view of a safety device used in association with the drafting apparatus of the present invention.

Now, the present invention will be described inmore detail by way of a preferred embodiment thereof with reference to the drawings. The structure of the present drafting apparatus comprises essentially a bottom stand 1 in which an assembly of the lower control rollers 3 is mounted and a top stand 2 in which an assembly of the upper control rollers 4 is mounted, as shown in FIG. 1. The top stand 2 is pivoted, as at 5, so that its one side may be opened as so desired, and at both sides of said top stand 2 are provided the set-screws 6 of which the threaded end portions 6' are arranged to be threadedly engaged in the corresponding threaded holes 7 formed in the bottom stand 1. At a side of the bottom stand 1 adjacent the pivot is provided a support block 8 for the top stand 2, said support block 8 having formed therein a through hole in which a safety pin 9 may be fitted.

Thus, it will be understood that when it is desired to inspect or clean the interior mechanism or when the sliver is overfed beyond the capacity of the control rollers, the top stand 2 may be easily raised up sidewise in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 1 by simply removing the set-screws 6 and pushing up said stand, and after raising up the stand in the manner described, a safety pin 9 may be inserted into the through hole in the support block 8 such that its end projects out a sufficient length from the hole to rest and support thereon the top stand which tends to incline in the direction of arrow b owing to its own weight, thus keeping said top stand in an opened position to expose the interior of the mechanism.

The control rollers 3, 4 are provided in opposed relation. As the details are shown in FIG. 2, each of said control rollers 3, 4 has threadedly engaged therewith a shaft 3, 4', and around the external circumferential surface of each of said control rollers 3, 4 are mounted the control plates 10 and spacer collars 11 which are arranged alternately relative to each other as shown. At both ends of each control roller are provided the anchor members 12 adapted to define termination of the control plate-spacer collar assembly. It will thus be seen that the needles 10', 10 formed integral with the respective upper and lower control plates 10, 10 are arranged in staggered relation with each other, as shown, with a certain phase difference in the axial direction.

Each of said control plates 10, of which the sectional configuration is best shown in FIG. 3A, in ring-shaped and has formed in its center a shaft hole a, with a key way b being formed at a part of the inner circumferential periphery of the ring, and around the outer circumferential periphery of the ring are formed a plurality of needles 10 which are integral with the ring and extend radially at equal pitch. Each of these needles 10' is usually straight in general configuration, oval in transverse section and sharply pointed at the end, but if desired, they may be hook-shaped. The relative positional relation between these needles, as shown in FIG. 38, should be set such that the internal angle (0), which is defined by two associated needles 10' 10' of the upper and lower control plates when they first contact with the sliver S on the feed side, will be more than 60, preferably about 80. In case the upper and lower needles are so set as to contact the sliver with a certain time gap relative to each other as shown in FIG. 6, their positional relation should be set such that the internal angle made by a particular needle relative to the direction of advance of the sliver when the pointed end of said needle first contacts said sliver will be more than preferably 40.

This may be achieved by as much approximating the angle made by inner side of the needle point to the normal as possible, or by as much enlarging the center distance of the upper and lower control plates as possible. This center distance may be suitably changed according to the thickness of the sliver supplied.

The importance of above-said definition of more than internal angle (0) formed by two associated upper and lower needles will be understood from the fact that such range of angle allows the needle combination l010' to easily thrust into the incoming sliver without strongly pressing it. Usually, it is most preferred to make arrangement such that the angle at which each needle thrusts into the sliver is substantially perpendicular to the sliver as in the case of a gill faller, but such is impossible with the needles formed integral with a rotary control plate as in the case of the present invention. It was, however, found as a result of experiments that it is possible to let the needles thrust easily into the sliver without unduly compressing it, if the arrangement is made such that each needle combination 10' 10 of the upper and lower control plates will run into the sliver at an internal angle of more than 60 substantially.

Each of the needles on the control plates according to the present invention is sharply pointed at the end so as to facilitate its thrusting into the sliver, and the stem of each needle is oval-shaped in section so as to enlarge resistance to the sliver and to minimize cut or damage of the sliver.

These control rollers 3, 4, having mounted thereon the control plates 10 and disposed in vertically opposed relation in the manner described above, are provided in combination in three pairs as indicated by 3a, 4a, 3b, 4b, and 30, 4c in the embodiment of FIG. 4, and in the rear of this assembly of control rollers are provided a pair of back rollers 13, 13, with a pair of front rollers 14, 14 being provided in front of said assembly. The sliver S is fed in passing between the back rollers 13, 13 and carried forwards passing between the said paired control rollers 3, 4 whereby the sliver is combed while being parallelized, and is finally passed between the front rollers 14, 14 which have several times as high peripheral velocity as that of the control rollers 3, 4 and whereby the sliver S is drafted.

The transmission mechanism for these rollers will now be described by taking an example where it is adapted in an ordinary type inter gill box as exemplified in FIG. 5. The rotational force transmitted from a motor through reduction gear is further transmitted to the back gears 15 mounted coaxially with the back rollers 13, one of said back gears being meshed with a tension gear 16 which, in turn, is meshed with a gear 17 which is mounted coaxially with the control roller 30 and a gear 18c. The last-said gear 18c, as will be seen in meshed with a gear 19c of the control roller 4c and also meshed with a gear 18b of the adjoining control roller 3b through an intermediate gear 20, to thus transmit the rotational force. In the same manner, the gear 18b of the control roller 3b is meshed with a gear 19b of the control roller 4b and also with an intermediate gear 20, the latter being meshed with a gear 18a of the control gear 3a, which, in turn, is meshed with a gear 19a of the control roller 4a, and, as will be understood, the rotational force is transmitted through these gearing. Preferably, the rotational velocity of the control rollers 3, 4 is selected such that it is substantially equal to the peripheral velocity of the back rollers l5, 15.

It will also be seen that the gear 18a is meshed through an intermediate gear 21 with a front gear 22 of the front roller 14, and said front gear 22, which has smaller number of teeth than said gear 18a, is meshed with a similar front gear 22 of the upper front roller, to thereby transmit the rotational force. Since arrangement is made such that the front rollers l4, l4 rotate with larger peripheral velocity than that of the control rollers 3, 4, the sliver S is drafted while passing between the control rollers.

As viewed from the above, the drafting of the sliver S is effected substantially between the front rollers 14 and the control rollers 4a, 3a which are positioned closest to said front rollers, so that these rollers receive the largest load. Therefore, non-uniform rotation of these rollers may result in non-uniform drafting. It is, hence,- desirable to use helical gears for driving the control rollers which are located adjacent to the front rollers. In the conventional gill heads, no consideration has been paid to this point. The present inventor has found through experiments that unevenness of the sliver drafting tends to be produced between the front rollers and the control rollers closest thereto as mentioned before. In view of this, the present invention employs nylon-made helical gears in the roller driving mechanism so as to prevent backlash and ensuresmooth rotation of the rollers, thereby perfectly eliminating unevenness in the drafting to obtain uniform sliver.

Concerning now the meshed engagement of the control plates mounted respectively on the shafts 4, 3' of the upper control gears 19a, 19b, 19c (hereinafter represented comprehensively by numeral 19) and the lower control gears 18a, 18b, 18c (hereinafter represented by numeral 18), there are shown some preferred examples of such arrangement in FIGS. 6 to 9, including one in which said plates are so set that their needles 10' are positioned in the center of the addendum of the respectively meshed gears 18, 19 (see FIG. 6), one in which the needles 10' are located at both centers of addendum and deddendum of said gears 18, 19, that is, two needles 10' are positioned in one pitch of gear (see FIG. 7), and one in which two needles 10 are located respectively at the addendum and at the deddendum of the respective gears l8, 19, that is, four needles 10' are positioned in one pitch of gear (see FIG. 8A). Thus, it will be seen that the needles 10', 10 of the opposed control plates 10 are located with a certain phase difference in the axial direction between the upper and lower needles and are arranged alternately in the direction of rotation so that such needle of one plate will be positioned between two corresponding needles of the other plate.

FIG. 9A shows a specific example where the control plates 10 mounted coaxially with the upper gears 19 are arranged such that their needles 10' are positioned in the center of addendum of each gear, while the control plates 10 mounted coaxially with the lower gears 18 are arranged such that their needles 10' are positioned in the center of addendum of each gear. Thus, in this example, both upper and lower needles 10, 10' are arranged in continuous parallel relation in the axial direction and in adjoining relation in the rotating direction. This arrangement is suited for drafting the material of poor cohesion, such as synthetic fibers.

In FIGS. 88 and 98 there are shown the expansion plans drawn to aid understanding of the arrangement of the needles 10' of the control plates 10. FIG. 8B shows a needle arrangement pattern where the needles are arranged adjoining to each other in the axially direction but alternately in the direction of rotation, while FIG. 9B shows such pattern where the needles are arranged in adjoining relation in both axial and rotational directions.

In this manner, the control plates 10 are fitted on the respective control rollers set coaxially with the respective gears 18, 19 through shafts 3', 4 and the number of the needle lines on the plurality of the control plates is selected so as to be an integer multiple of the number of teeth of each said gear, so that if correct positioning is made at the time of the setting of said rollers, it is possible to precisely locate the needles of the upper and lower control plates in the respective predeter mined relative positions by simply letting the gears mesh with each other. The relative positional relation between the gears and control plates can be determined by suitable selection of keys adapted to secure the gears and control plates to the respective shafts,

Further, owing to the specific arrangement such as to set at more than 60 the internal angle 0 between the associated needles 10' of the control plates 10, both upper and lower needles 10', 10' can be effectively thrust into the sliver S so as to retain it in a desirable manner without unduly compressing it, so that no unevenness of drafting is produced between the surface portion and the interior portion of the sliver, and also, since the needle intervals are constant, the sliver is grasped gently and evenly and therefore remains safe from any damage during the combing operation which is performed in quite a satisfactory manner.

Referring now to FIG. 10, there is shown a safety device adapted for use in the apparatus of the present invention. The bearing boxes 23 provided at both ends of the respective control rollers 4a, 4b, 4c in the cover side of the apparatus are incorporated in such a manner that they are slidable vertically relative to the top stand 2. It will be seen that springs 25 are fitted in the respective adjusting screws 24 adapted to be engaged in the respective threaded holes in the top stand 2, and the ends of said springs 25 are pressedly contacted against the respective bearing boxes 23 of the shafts 4' of said control rollers.4a, 4b, 40, with each of said bearing boxes 23 being arranged slidable in a guide groove 26 formed in the top stand 2. As will be further seen, each of said bearing boxes 23 has secured thereto a cam 27 which has its bevel pressed by a spring 30 against a pin 28 fixed to a slidable bar 29, one end of which bar is positioned in close proximity to a button 32 of a limit switch 31 as shown.

It will thus be appreciated that when the sliver S is fed in between a pair of control rollers 3, 4 in slightly excess of a normal amount, the control roller 4 in the cover side is pushed up by resistance force of the sliver against the elastic force of spring 25, thus causing the bearing box 23 retaining the shaft 4 to be accordingly moved up to allow passage of the sliver with no undue strain. In case the feed of sliver is far excess of a prescribed amount and such excess quantity of sliver is held between the control rollers 3, 4, the bearing boxes 23 are pushed up in the same manner as described above, and when the degree of this push-up exceeds a prescribed level, the earns 27 secured to said bearing boxes 23 are also forced to move up, pushing with their bevels the pins 28 to let the latter move in the direction of arrow C. This also causes the slideable bar 29 secured to said pins 28 to move in the same direction until its end is contacted with the button 32 of the limit switch 31 to energize the associated electric system to entirely stop operation of the machine, thus precluding possible damage or breakdown of the machine parts. It will be also noted that in case the sliver is fed in between the control rollers 3, 4 in slightly excess of the normal prescription, the above-said cams 27, pins 28 and slideable bar 29 are operated in the same manner as described, but if the amount of work of such elements is scanty, the end of the slideable bar 29 may not contact the limit switch 31, allowing continued operation of the machine.

In case the machine is brought into standstill, the operator may open the top stand 2 in the manner shown in FIG. 1 and remove the sliver stuffed between the rollers.

What is claimed is:

1. A rotary drafting apparatus comprising:

a body structure comprising a bottom stand and a top stand which is openable at one side relative to said bottom stand;

means for retaining said top stand at its open position;

plural pairs of control rollers provided in parallel and vertically opposed relation to one another in each of said stands, said control rollers being rotatably supported in the respective stands through their respective supporting shafts;

a plurality of control plates fixedly mounted on each of said control rollers in axially aligned relation therewith and equidistantly spaced apart from one another, each of said control plates having integrally formed along its circumference a plurality of needles which extend straight radially at equal pitch and which are pointed at ends and ovalshaped in transverse section; and

gears each being secured adjacent one end of the supporting shaft of each said control roller;

the gears on the shafts of the control rollers in the bottom stand being respectively meshed with the corresponding gears on the shafts of the control rollers in the top stand; and

a plurality of gears arranged to successively transmit a driving force from a motor to the gears on the shafts of the bottom control rollers to thereby drive the corresponding gears on the shafts of the upper control rollers; the number of the needle lines on the plurality of said control plates mounted on said control rollers being selected so as to be an integer multiple of the number of teeth of each said gear, whereby the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles on said control plates can be maintained always constant merely through the meshing of the upper and lower gears.

2. A rotary drafting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, each pair of said control 'plates being arranged such that the upper and lower needles thereof is positioned equidistantly spaced apart from one another in the axial direction and adapted to be thrust into the sliver with an equal phase difference in the direction of rotation, and when the operation of the apparatus is started by closing the top stand which has been at the open position, the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles is uniformalized merely through the meshing of the upper and lower gears at the ends of said supporting shafts, with no need of mark registering of the needles, so as to allow uniform combing of the sliver. 

1. A rotary drafting apparatus comprising: a body structure comprising a bottom stand and a top stand which is openable at one side relative to said bottom stand; means for retaining said top stand at its open position; plural pairs of control rollers provided in parallel and vertically opposed relation to one another in each of said stands, said control rollers being rotatably supported in the respective stands through their respective supporting shafts; a pluraliTy of control plates fixedly mounted on each of said control rollers in axially aligned relation therewith and equidistantly spaced apart from one another, each of said control plates having integrally formed along its circumference a plurality of needles which extend straight radially at equal pitch and which are pointed at ends and oval-shaped in transverse section; and gears each being secured adjacent one end of the supporting shaft of each said control roller; the gears on the shafts of the control rollers in the bottom stand being respectively meshed with the corresponding gears on the shafts of the control rollers in the top stand; and a plurality of gears arranged to successively transmit a driving force from a motor to the gears on the shafts of the bottom control rollers to thereby drive the corresponding gears on the shafts of the upper control rollers; the number of the needle lines on the plurality of said control plates mounted on said control rollers being selected so as to be an integer multiple of the number of teeth of each said gear, whereby the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles on said control plates can be maintained always constant merely through the meshing of the upper and lower gears.
 2. A rotary drafting apparatus as claimed in claim 1, each pair of said control plates being arranged such that the upper and lower needles thereof is positioned equidistantly spaced apart from one another in the axial direction and adapted to be thrust into the sliver with an equal phase difference in the direction of rotation, and when the operation of the apparatus is started by closing the top stand which has been at the open position, the relative positional relation between the upper and lower needles is uniformalized merely through the meshing of the upper and lower gears at the ends of said supporting shafts, with no need of mark registering of the needles, so as to allow uniform combing of the sliver. 